Chandigarh, January 6, 2006:
The Punjab Engineering College (PEC) here would admit over a hundred students for various bachelor degrees from the coming academic session to allow for attrition during the course of admission. This proposal was passed by the Board of Governors during its meeting held today.
PEC has also changed the eligibility criteria for admissions to these courses. Only those students who have secured a minimum of 60 per cent marks in the qualifying examination ( plus two examination) would be eligible for admissions. However, the percentage would be lower for candidates belonging to the reserved categories. This percentage would be fixed in keeping with the one fixed by the IITs. Earlier, there was no specific percentage limit to the qualifying examination.

The proposal of allowing only those candidates who have passed the qualifying examination in the current or preceding year would be eligible for admission was not passed by the board following a similar veto decision by the Panjab University in this regard.

The number of students which would be admitted to PEC would be increased from the current 385 in various engineering courses to 483. “The increase in admissions is being done to ensure that no seats are left vacant after the first counseling for admissions. There would, as a result, be only a single counseling for admissions to PEC,” said the PEC Director, Prof Vijay Gupta.

Three extra admissions would be done to the Aeronautical Engineering course, 25 to Civil Engineering, five to Computer Science, 15 to Electrical Engineering course, five to Electronics and Information Technology, 15 to Mechanical Engineering, 15 to Metallurgical and 10 to Production Engineering.

Professor Gupta made it clear that the number of seats had not been increased but more students would be admitted to ensure that no seats went vacant in case some of the admitted candidates left after the first counseling. Sources added that no permission from AICTE was required to make such a change since PEC was a deemed university.

The Director added that PEC would also admit international students on merit based on the SAT-2 examination following the pattern suggested by the UGC. These admissions would be different from admissions to the NRI quota seats. The eligibility conditions would include that the candidate had done his Classes XI and XII in a foreign nation. Earlier these admissions were being done following nominations done by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.